Needle machine control device



Jan. 23, 1968 a 'FIG.!

INVENTORS:

WILLIAM A. L. SIBLEY,JR JAMES L. TALBERT WILLIAM F. TAYLOR JR FIG.3

FIG. 2

Patented Jan. 23, 1968 nice 3,364,888 NEEDLE MACHINE CONTROL DEVICE William A. L. Sibley, J12, Greenville, James L. Talbert,

Greer, and William F. Taylor, in, Taylor, S.C., as-

signors to J. P. Stevens & Co., Inc, New York, N.Y.,

a corporation of Delaware Filed Feb. 25, 1966, Ser. No. 530,091 Claims. (Cl. 11279) This invention relates in general to yarn breakage detection devices and, more particularly, to stop motion devices for tufting machines.

Stop motion devices to halt the operation of many varieties of textile machines upon the breaking of one of many strands of yarn are well known. However, commercial tufting machines have not been equipped with an automatic stop motion device to detect yarn breakage except for the simple drop wire type of mechanism which is common to textile looms. The drop wire type of stop motion mechanism is limited in its application to tufting machines due to the great number of yarn strands running to each machine, the diameters of the yarns used in tufting machines, and the varying yarn tensions inherent in the tufting operation. Also, the drop wire mechanism will not stop a tufting machine unless a yarn strand breaks some distance prior to going through a needle eye.

A main object of this invention is to provide a more simple and effective stop motion device for use with a tufting machine.

A feature of this invention is the utilization of existing elements of a tufting machine without any additions or changes as electrical contacts for a stop motion apparatus.

A further object of this invention is to provide a stop motion device for a tufting machine which will not only function upon yarn breakage remote from the needles and loopers, but will also detect a breakage or malfunction during the formation of the loops between the needle and looper pairs.

Yet a further object of this invention is to provide a stop motion device for a tufting machine which requires minor additions and almost no modification of the tuf ing machine.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a stop motion device for a tufting machine which requires better adjustment of the needle-looper relationship resulting in better overall quality carpet or the like being produced.

Many other objects, advantages and features of invention reside in the construction, combination and arrangement of parts involved in the embodiment of the invention and its practice otherwise as will be understood from the following description and accompanying drawing wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a transverse vertical section through a conventional sewing machine for tufting purposes which is equipped with the stop motion apparatus of this invention; and

FIGURES 2 and 3 are front views of fragments of a single needle and looper of a conventional tufting machine forming a loop in a fragment of backing.

The tufting machine shown somewhat diagrammatically in the drawing comprises a frame provided with a table 11 over which the backing sheet 12 is advanced from a supply by means of rolls 13, 14, 15 and 16, some of which or all of which are driven. A shaft 17 mounted above the table 11 is driven by a motor 18 by any conventional drive means. Motor 18 need not be located where shown in FIGURE 1, but it is here shown only to more easily illustrate the instant invention.

A needle bar 19 is vertically reciprocated by means of the eccentric disks 20, straps 21 encircling the disks 20, connecting rods 22, and the vertically slidable rods 23. Plastic mounting brackets 24 insulate the needle bar 19 from the tufting machine. Guides 25 guide strands of yarn Y which each pass through the eye of a needle 26. The plurality of needles 26 is fixed in the needle bar 19.

Beneath the table 11 are a number of loopers or looper hooks 30, one for each needle 26, which are mounted on looper bar 31 fixed on a rock shaft 32. The rock shaft 32 is oscillated by motor 18 in synchronization with the rotation of shaft 1'7 by any conventional drive means. If a needle plate 33 is used with needle plate wires 34, needle plate 33 and wires 34 should be insulated from table 11 by a sheet of plastic 36 or in any other suitable manner.

As the needles 26 pass loops 41 of the yarn strands Y through the backing sheet 12 in the usual way, the loopers are swung to cause their hooks 40 to enter the loops 41 and hold them when the needles are lifted and retracted to rise out of the backing 12. The features of the machine so far described are of conventional construction and may take various forms. In a conventional tufting machine, when one of the many strands of yarn Y breaks, defective goods are produced which is very costly.

This invention grounds the looper bar 31 through a lead 42 if it is not grounded through the machine. As described, the needle bar 19 and the needle bed plate 33, if any, are electrically insulated from the machine for the practice of this invention. A normally open switch 44 is connected to needle bar 19 by lead 45. Switch 44 is closed upon each rotation of shaft 17 by a cam 46.

As one example to illustrate this invention, a sprocket 47 on shaft 17 drives a sprocket 48 of the same size by means of a chain 49. Cam 46 is shown mounted on sprocket 48. As shown in FIGURE 3, as the eyes of the needles 26 rise above the hooks 46, strands of yarn Y hold the needles 26 away from the hooks 40. At this moment in the machine cycle, cam 46 closes switch 44. If one of the many strands of yarn Y is broken, a needle 26 will contact a hook 40 to make a momentary electrical connection.

Line terminals 50 and 51 are connected through the conventional motor starter 52 by leads 53 and 54 to motor 18. A transformer 55 is also connected across leads 53 and 54 by leads 56 and 57. The low voltage leads 60 and 61 from transformer 55 are, respectively, grounded and connected to a relay 62. Thus, on the breaking of a strand of yarn Y, low voltage current will flow from transformer 55, lead 61, relay 62, lead 63, switch 44, lead 45, needle 26 and hook 40 of looper 30 to ground. Current flowing through relay 62 will close a switch within the relay to activate the stop portion of motor control 52 through the leads 64 and 65. In this manner the breaking of a single strand of yarn Y will stop the machine.

This invention is superior to drop wire type mechanisms in that it indicates any failure of loop formation. Further, it ensures the simultaneous formation of all loops during the short time interval that switch 44 is closed. This, and the fact that all the needles 26 and loopers 30 must be correctly aligned, requires the tufting machine to be more carefully adjusted which results in the production of a better quality product.

This invention requires very few additions to the basic tufting machine. Only the electrical isolation of either the needles 26 or the loopers 30 is required. If the loopers 30 were electrically isolated, lead 45 could be connected to looper bar 31 and the needle bar 19 could be grounded. Switch 44 may be activated by any portion of the machine such as a cam 46 mounted directly on shaft 17. If desired,

an electronic relay 62 containing a transformer 55 may be used. Since conventional motor controls 52 usually have a stop button switch, the leads 64 and 65 from the relay 62 need only be connected across the stop button switch.

While this invention has been described in the best form known, it will nevertheless be understood that this is purely exemplary and that modifications may be made in the construction, combination and arrangement of parts, and the substitution of equivalents mechanically and otherwise, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention except as it may be more limited in the appended claims wherein:

What is claimed is:

1. A tufting machine in combination with a stop motion apparatus; said tufting machine having a conductive needle bar, a plurality of needles having eyes and being mounted in said needle bar, means passing a backing below said needles, a motor, a motor control for stopping said motor, drive means driven by said motor reciprocating said needle bar passing said needles through the backing, a conductive looper bar below said needles, of plurality of hooks mounted on said looper bar, there being one hook for each of said needles, and drive means driven by said motor oscillating said looper bar and said hooks moving said hooks alongside said needles in synchronization with the reciprocation of said needles when said needles extend through said backing, said hooks engaging said yarn threaded through the eyes of said needles forming said loops as said needles are withdrawn; said stop motion apparatus comprising, means electrically isolating said needle bar and said needles from said looper bar and said hooks, a current source, mechanism including a switch connecting in series, said current source, said needle bar, and said looper bar when said needles contact said hooks, said mechanism being energizable by said current source to activate said motor control for stopping said motor, and means closing said switch momentarily after said needles reciprocate upwards moving the eyes of said needles past said hooks, said yarn threaded through the eyes of said needle then preventing contact between said needles and said hooks so that said stop motion apparatus is disabled only by the pres ence of yarn in the eyes of said needles momentarily after the eyes of said needles reciprocate upwards past said hooks.

2. The combination according to claim 1 wherein two leads extend from said current source, one of said leads being grounded and the other of said leads being connected in series with said switch, said looper bar being grounded and said isolating means comprising means insulating said needle bar from said tufting machine, said switch being connected in series with said needle bar.

3. The combination according to claim 2 wherein said tufting machine has a needle plate, said needle plate being insulated from the tuftin g machine.

4. A tufting machine in combination with a stop motion apparatus; said tufting machine having a conductive needle bar, a plurality of needles having eyes and being mounted in said needle bar, means passing a backing below said needles, a motor, a motor control for stopping said motor, drive means driven by said motor reciprocating said needle bar passing said needles through the backing, a conductive looper bar below said needles a plurality of hooks mounted on said looper bar, there being one hook for each of said needles, and drive means driven by said motor oscillating said looper bar and said hooks moving said hooks alongside said needles in synchronization with the reciprocation of said needles when said needles extend through said backing, said hooks engaging said yarn threaded through the eyes of said needles forming said loops as said needles are withdrawn; said stop motion apparatus comprising, means electrically isolating said needle bar and said needels from said looper bar and said hooks, a current source, a relay, a switch connected in series with said current source, said relay, said needle bar, and said looper bar when said needles contact said hooks, means connecting said relay to said motor control stopping said motor on activation of said relay, and means closing said switch momentarily after said needles reciprocate upwards moving the eyes of said needles past said hooks, said yarn threaded through the eyes of said needles then preventing contact between said needles and said hooks.

5. The combination according to claim 4 wherein said current source is a transformer having low voltage leads connected in series with said switch, said relay, said needle bar and said looper bar when said needles contact said hooks.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,939,464 12/1933 Roseman ll2-219 XR 2,427,055 9/1947 Kellogg et al 20061.l3 2,591,405 4/1952 Carter 66163 2,941,388 6/1960 Schoenster et a1 66163 JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

H, H IiIUISUFER, Exam n 

1. A TUFTING MACHINE IN COMBUSTION WITH A STOP MOTION APPARATUS; SAID TUFTING MACHINE HAVING A CONDUCTIVE NEEDLE BAR, A PLURALITY OF NEEDLES HAVING EYES AND BEING MOUNTED IN SAID NEEDLE BAR, MEANS PASSING A BACKING BELOW SAID NEEDLES, A MOTOR, A MOTOR CONTROL FOR STOPPING SAID MOTOR, DRIVE MEANS DRIVEN BY SAID MOTOR RECIPROCATING SAID NEEDLE BAR PASSING SAID NEEDLE THROUGH THE BACKING, A CONDUCTIVE LOOPER BAR BELOW SAID NEEDLES, OF PLURALITY OF HOOKS MOUNTED ON SAID LOOPER BAR, THERE BEING ONE HOOK FOR EACH OF SAID NEEDLES, SAID DRIVE MEANS DRIVEN BY SAID MOTOR OSCILLATING SAID LOOPER BAR AND SAID HOOKS MOVING SAID HOOKS ALONGSIDE SAID NEEDLES IN SYNCHRONIZATION WITH THE RECIPROCATION OF SAID NEEDLES WHEN SAID NEEDLES EXTEND THROUGH SAID BACKING, SAID HOOKS ENGAGING SAID YARN THREADED THROUGH THE EYES OF SAID NEEDLES FORMING SAID LOOPS AS SAID NEEDLES ARE WITHDRAWN; SAID STOP MOTION APPARATUS COMPRISING, MEANS ELECTRICALLY ISOLATING SAID NEEDLE BAR AND SAID NEEDLES FROM SAID LOOPER BAR AND SAID HOOKS, A CURRENT SOURCE, MECHANISM INCLUD- 